Ireland V All Blacks - Teams Announced and Matchday Thread

[clivemcl]

First topic message reminder :

IRELAND TEAM

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
13 - Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
11 - Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
9 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Declan Fitzpatrick (Dungannon/Ulster) *
4 - Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)
5 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
6 - Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
7 - Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Ronan Loughney (Galwegians/Connacht) *
18 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
19 - Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)


NZ Team

15 Israel Dagg,
14 Zac Guildford,
13 Conrad Smith,
12 Sonny Bill Williams,
11 Julian Savea,
10 Dan Carter,
9 Aaron Smith,
8 Kieran Read,
7 Richie McCaw (capt),
6 Victor Vito,
5 Sam Whitelock,
4 Brodie Retallick,
3 Owen Franks,
2 Andrew Hore,
1 Tony Woodcock.

Reserves: Hika Elliot, Ben Franks, Ali Williams, Adam Thomson, Piri Weepu, Aaron Cruden, Ben Smith.

Tour Previews:
http://www.v2journal.com/irelands-summer-tour.html
http://www.v2journal.com/new-zealands-june-tests-preview.html

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

Well, New Zealand is so ugly, they had to import a South African to compete in Miss World or Miss Universe or something (Kiwireddevil mentioned it the other day). I suppose it was tiring to see sheep win it.

I think it might have the runner up as well. Nothing dodgy about that comp. I hear Wayne Barnes was a judge.

The runner up was an Aussie - she'd been living in NZ for years and thought citizenship was "one of those things that happen automatically"

[emack2]

The time for talking is nearly done,in the next few hours we will see the future generation displaying there wares.THEN the NH v SH battle stats mean nothing,Ireland are going win at some time that is unmistakeable logic .Stating the obvious IF they want to win tomorrow,hit the number 9 tackle him every time he has the ball or gets near it,pin him at the back of rucks.TARGET HIM he is the weak link his first test no matter how good he is he will have nerves.Your own 9 and Loosies have to scrag him every chance you get.IF the ABs don`t get the ball they can`t hurt you.IF you can force him of subbed you will have damaged his confidence,and face an out of form sub.
All theory off course but it was common practice in the past and worked then.

[kiakahaaotearoa]

The time for talking is nearly done,in the next few hours we will see the future generation displaying there wares.THEN the NH v SH battle stats mean nothing,Ireland are going win at some time that is unmistakeable logic .Stating the obvious IF they want to win tomorrow,hit the number 9 tackle him every time he has the ball or gets near it,pin him at the back of rucks.TARGET HIM he is the weak link his first test no matter how good he is he will have nerves.Your own 9 and Loosies have to scrag him every chance you get.IF the ABs don`t get the ball they can`t hurt you.IF you can force him of subbed you will have damaged his confidence,and face an out of form sub.
All theory off course but it was common practice in the past and worked then.

That's not unmistakable logic, that's wishful thinking. Ireland has the potential to win but could just as easily go through eternity without ever beating the ABs.

[Mickado]

The time for talking is nearly done,in the next few hours we will see the future generation displaying there wares.THEN the NH v SH battle stats mean nothing,Ireland are going win at some time that is unmistakeable logic .Stating the obvious IF they want to win tomorrow,hit the number 9 tackle him every time he has the ball or gets near it,pin him at the back of rucks.TARGET HIM he is the weak link his first test no matter how good he is he will have nerves.Your own 9 and Loosies have to scrag him every chance you get.IF the ABs don`t get the ball they can`t hurt you.IF you can force him of subbed you will have damaged his confidence,and face an out of form sub.
All theory off course but it was common practice in the past and worked then.

That's not unmistakable logic, that's wishful thinking. Ireland has the potential to win but could just as easily go through eternity without ever beating the ABs.

That’s a very philosophical stance. Unless the game of rugby is disbanded in our lifetime you can’t be proven wrong or right.

But I do think that it’s likely that at some stage we will beat NZ. tomorrow.

[mankiaow]

I was at Lansdowne Road the only time we got any sort of result against the ABs, a 10-10 draw in 1974.

I was ten years old with my Dad. I have vague, murky recollections of it. I played tennis a few years ago against Johnny Murphy, the SH that day and still a spritely teetotaler in his sixties. I mentioned the game to him in the bar later and he seethed, ‘If Tommy Kiernan hadn’t missed that drop goal we would have WON’. Over thirty years later!

Hopefully BOD and a few others will be in that frame of mind tomorrow.

[rodders]

The time for talking is nearly done,in the next few hours we will see the future generation displaying there wares.THEN the NH v SH battle stats mean nothing,Ireland are going win at some time that is unmistakeable logic .Stating the obvious IF they want to win tomorrow,hit the number 9 tackle him every time he has the ball or gets near it,pin him at the back of rucks.TARGET HIM he is the weak link his first test no matter how good he is he will have nerves.Your own 9 and Loosies have to scrag him every chance you get.IF the ABs don`t get the ball they can`t hurt you.IF you can force him of subbed you will have damaged his confidence,and face an out of form sub.
All theory off course but it was common practice in the past and worked then.

That's not unmistakable logic, that's wishful thinking. Ireland has the potential to win but could just as easily go through eternity without ever beating the ABs.

Over a long enough timeframe the chances of anything happening become 100%

[kiakahaaotearoa]

Don't worry I'm only kidding. I always get nervous when we play Ireland. The record is such a proud achievement it's too surreal to think we no longer have it.

I remember in my student days a friend and I would play King of the Table in pool at the local bar. We went undefeated. Our secret weapon was the Prodigy. Whenever we played Diesel Power on the jukebox (and if we were in real trouble the double header of Funky S**t) we would somehow find a way to win. We could have no balls sunk and then boom on comes the song and one of us would clear the table. The legend grew and the intimidation factor ratcheted up whenever that song came on the jukebox. We went a year and a half undefeated and then one day, on potting the black, we (the moment is so repressed I can't remember which of us sunk the white which suggests it was me!) sunk the white. The legend died that day and so too did a small part of me. Time passed and legend turned to myth and the earthquake has since demolished the Jolly Poacher and with it all memory of that golden era.

So you'll excuse me if I want to see this AB record preserved. And if you happen to be in Bo Finn in Calle Valazquez tomorrow and hear Diesel Power coming on the loudspeakers you'll know Ireland are up by 10 and I'm starting to contemplate the horrible idea of a little part of me dying on the inside.

[debaters1]

Re the 10:10 game at Lansdowne, it happened 9 years before I was born but I heard that under todays points scoring system Ireland would have won. Obviously that is like saying if my Aunt had balls she'd be my uncle but it does make you think.

Ah well anyway, this generation won a Grand Slam and in the Southern Hemisphere so hopefully a victory over the AB's is one the cards too........

Ireland by 6. Believe! COYBIG!!!

[rodders]

Don't worry I'm only kidding. I always get nervous when we play Ireland. The record is such a proud achievement it's too surreal to think we no longer have it.

I remember in my student days a friend and I would play King of the Table in pool at the local bar. We went undefeated. Our secret weapon was the Prodigy. Whenever we played Diesel Power on the jukebox (and if we were in real trouble the double header of Funky S**t) we would somehow find a way to win. We could have no balls sunk and then boom on comes the song and one of us would clear the table. The legend grew and the intimidation factor ratcheted up whenever that song came on the jukebox. We went a year and a half undefeated and then one day, on potting the black, we (the moment is so repressed I can't remember which of us sunk the white which suggests it was me!) sunk the white. The legend died that day and so too did a small part of me. Time passed and legend turned to myth and the earthquake has since demolished the Jolly Poacher and with it all memory of that golden era.

thats a cracking story Kia .... but it sounds a bit like an Urban myth, I mean for flip sake why didn't one of your rivals unplug the feicin jukebox?.......

[kiakahaaotearoa]

Like people staring at an animal crossing a motorway, part of you wants to see what happens next. Sadly now with the pub destroyed and the record broken it is an urban myth. But we were once legends and it really did happen. But like if the ABs lose, nobody cares about trifling historical details. We only deal in the now.

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

Don't worry I'm only kidding. I always get nervous when we play Ireland. The record is such a proud achievement it's too surreal to think we no longer have it.

I remember in my student days a friend and I would play King of the Table in pool at the local bar. We went undefeated. Our secret weapon was the Prodigy. Whenever we played Diesel Power on the jukebox (and if we were in real trouble the double header of Funky S**t) we would somehow find a way to win. We could have no balls sunk and then boom on comes the song and one of us would clear the table. The legend grew and the intimidation factor ratcheted up whenever that song came on the jukebox. We went a year and a half undefeated and then one day, on potting the black, we (the moment is so repressed I can't remember which of us sunk the white which suggests it was me!) sunk the white. The legend died that day and so too did a small part of me. Time passed and legend turned to myth and the earthquake has since demolished the Jolly Poacher and with it all memory of that golden era.

thats a cracking story Kia .... but it sounds a bit like an Urban myth, I mean for flip sake why didn't one of your rivals unplug the feicin jukebox?.......

Unplug the jukebox? In the Jolly Poacher? No chance. The only time the thing was off was if Janice Gray* was torturing our ears by singing live, with a too-load PA system. (JP's was my work local for a couple of years in the late 90s). It later achieved infamy as the bar where Tana Umaga hit Chris Masoe with a bystander's handbag in the wee small hours after losing a Super12 final to the Crusaders (JP's was one of the few bars in Christchurch that was open 24 hours a day)


*Janice Gray - enough said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkm2apjJsJU

[kiakahaaotearoa]

No I think I banged on Diesel Power then too mate! I recall seeing Goldenhorse there one time and the lead singer was much better to look at than Janice Gray!

No this was from 2003 to 2004. I should've put up a plaque by the jukebox saying this is the jukebox which sunk many souls on the pool table. Damn it I should've bought the jukebox. But because the record was finally broken it would never have been played. This is what you're up against Ireland.

I would pay money to see Ireland up in the last 5 minutes and then hear
blows your mind drastically fantastically blear away on the loudspeaker and Carter to get the winning drop goal from 50m. Maybe then, and only then, could I be reconciled with the Diesel Power Pub Pool record. Anyone know the sound guy at Eden Park?

[emack2]

In the past there was some very close games,indeed had the modern points values held sway.Ireland would have beaten Wilson Whinerays Allblacks 7-6,result was 6-5 AllBlacks.Mike Gibson Try[converted],Herewini Drop Goal,Don Clarke Penalty Goal.THAT was when the All Blacks were probably the best side in the World 1963-7.

[aucklandlaurie]

I am useless at posting newspaper articles on here, but some of you Irish may be interested in one of the Irish/AB/rugby stories in this mornings New Zealand Herald, One in paticular is entitled "The strange tale of Finnegans Haka" might be worth a read.

[mystiroakey]

Finnegans haka, is that the Irish version of the Hakafactor?

[Cymroglan]

I am useless at posting newspaper articles on here, but some of you Irish may be interested in one of the Irish/AB/rugby stories in this mornings New Zealand Herald, One in paticular is entitled "The strange tale of Finnegans Haka" might be worth a read.

http://www.webmasternow.com/copyandpaste.html

[Guest]

Sonny bill Williams will have a field day,we all know what big backs like north, roberts and Davies can do to this irish defense off set piece, all blacks get any line outs in the Irish 22 with clean ball off the top its try time.

[aucklandlaurie]

The strange tale of Finnegan's haka
By Dean Parker 5:30 AM Saturday Jun 9, 2012

EmailPrintAs Ireland prepare to face the All Blacks at Eden Park today, Dean Parker recalls how the New Zealand battle cry influenced one of their greatest writers


The Paris match between the All Blacks and a French Selection at Colombes Stadium in 1925 had an inquisitive spectator in the form of James Joyce (inset). Picture / APSamuel Beckett had huge admiration for his fellow Irish writer James Joyce which extended even into the exacting realm of fantasy football. So when it came to drawing up an All-Ireland XV of Irish writers, Beckett, a former First XV halfback, slipped his idol in at first five-eighths.

"Very crafty, very nippy," Beckett noted. "He might surprise you when the light is fading."

Joyce would be an unlikely choice at first five. He was half blind and prone to giving long thought to any serious matter such as what to do with the ball in hand.

But he seemed to appreciate a decent game.

In January 1925 Joyce was living in Paris. Three years after writing Ulysses, an abstruse masterpiece set over a single day, he was moving on to Finnegan's Wake, a history of the world as dreamed over a single night - idiosyncratic to the point of impenetrability and inevitably provoking utter admiration. In 1998 it would be ranked 77th on a list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, yet as its Wikipedia entry cautions "key elements remain elusive".

On the second Sunday in January, 1925, the astigmatic Dubliner pushed his writing blocks aside and took off for Colombes Stadium in Paris. There a French XV were playing a touring rugby side.

The touring side were the All Blacks. They were the side later to be nicknamed The Invincibles. Led by Cliff Porter, and featuring George Nepia and the Brownlie brothers from Hawkes Bay, they toured the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Canada playing 32 games, including four tests, winning all, totalling 838 points and conceding 116.

In Paris that day they were having a work-out against a French Selection before heading to Toulouse for a test.

It was a scrotum-tightening winter's day. James Joyce wiped his eyeglasses with his old snotrag and placed the thick lenses back about his Hibernian physog as the ABs ran out.

All those gathered prepared for what earlier reports of the tour had described as the "weird war cry of the visitors". Before kick-off, the team "formed in a line down the centre of the field with Nepia a few paces in front of them grinning broadly and leading them in strange convulsive movements." It was the team haka.

Ko Niu Tireni had been especially devised for the tour, written on the boat trip over by Wiremu Rangi of Gisborne, and then given a polish by Frank Acheson, a Native Land Court judge and one of a small group of supporters touring with the team.

It went like this.

Kia whakangawari au i a hau! I au-e! Hei! (Get ready for the clash)

Ko Niu Tireni e haruru nei. Au! Au! Au-e ha! Hei! (New Zealand's storm is about to break)

Ko Niu Tireni e haruru nei. Au! Au! Au-e ha! Hei!

A ha-ha!

Ka tu te ihiihi (We shall stand fearless)

Ka tu te wanawana (We shall stand exalted in spirit)

Ki runga ki te rangi, (We shall climb to the heavens)

E tu iho nei, tu iho nei, hi! (We shall attain the utmost heights)

Au! Au! Au!

The haka completed, the team strolled on to an easy win, 37-8. Joyce went home.

According to research done by Richard Corballis, professor of English at Massey University, some time after this Joyce wrote to a younger sister who had migrated to New Zealand. She had become Sister Mary Gertrude and was living on the West Coast of the South Island. Joyce wrote to her for the words of the haka he had heard at the stadium.

Corballis cites a tribute to Sister Mary Gertrude that appeared in the Tablet a month after her death and which he argues would have been written by her fellow Sisters of Mercy: "When the All Blacks first visited Paris, James Joyce attended the games and later requested that Sister Mary Gertrude send him the Maori words with translation and music of the Haka."

Sister Mary Gertrude - or someone - eventually did send Joyce the words.

Finnegan's Wake took 17 years to write (Ulysses, at a mere seven, was a breeze).

And there, in Book II, chapter iii, appears this: Au! Au! Aue! Ha! Heish! ... how Holispolis went to Parkland with mabby and sammy and sonny and sissy and mop's varlet de shambles and all to find the right place for it by peep o'skirt or pipe a skirl when the hundt called a halt on the chivvychace of the ground sloper at that ligtning lovemaker's thender apeal till, between wandering weather and stable wind, vastelend hosteilend, neuziel and oltrigger some, Bullyclubber burgherly shut the rush in general.

Let us propel us for the frey of the fray! Us, us, beraddy!

Ko Niutirenis hauru leish! A lala! Ko Niutirenis haururu laleish! Ala lala! The Wullingthund sturm is breaking. The sound of maormaoring The Wellingthund sturm waxes fuercilier. The whackawhacks of the sturm. Katu te ihis ihis! Katu te wana wana! The strength of the rawshorn generand is known throughout the world. Let us say if we may what a weeny wukeleen can do.

Au! Au! Aue! Ha! Heish! A lala!

Surely no one has written better of Wellington weather. And if "Parkland", as Corballis suggests, is Colombes Stadium and "rawshorn" a reference to the All Blacks' classic kiwi haircuts - bit off the top and short back and sides - then it's all pretty clear.

Corballis notes other Kiwi terms appearing in the general text, including pukkaru, but it's the references to the capital that excite him.

He suggests the battle of Waterloo between the Duke of Wellington and the Emperor Napoleon which is constantly referenced in the Wake may reflect among other things that 1925 Paris match.

"Moreover," he continues, "It may not be too impudent to suggest that Colombes Stadium is as significant a site in the Wake as Phoenix Park [in Dublin]."

Au! Au! Au!

All Blacks 37, French Selection 8.

James Joyce's Canterbury link
Irish author James Joyce has a sister buried in Waimairi Cemetery, Christchurch. Born Margaret Alice and nicknamed "Poppie" by Joyce, she was two years younger than him.

She became Sister Mary Gertrude and emigrated to New Zealand in 1909, aged 25, with three other Irish novices.

When Joyce heard she was migrating he returned to Dublin from Trieste to see her off. And when he read of the Murchison earthquake of June 17, 1929, and knowing she was living on the West Coast, he sent her a telegram anxious to know that she was all right.

She taught at All Saints Convent of Mercy in Greymouth, then at Runanga and Brunner, teaching the piano. In 1949 she moved to a convent in Papanui.

According to the centennial publication of the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, Sister Mary Gertrude was pleased when one of her pupils, a not particularly good student, became a priest.

"She took that as a sign that not in vain had been her lifetime of penance and prayer for her profligate brother, James Joyce, one of the most renowned - and permissive - of modern authors."

She died in 1964 aged 80.

Learn a new thing every day. Thanks Coymro.

[mystiroakey]

ermmm- i read bits, gonna be honest. i am sleepy

[Rory_Gallagher]

Sonny bill Williams will have a field day,we all know what big backs like north, roberts and Davies can do to this irish defense off set piece, all blacks get any line outs in the Irish 22 with clean ball off the top its try time.

Yeah, we saw what they did against a combination of D'Arcy - McFadden. One guy totally out of form, another totally out of position. Probably the worst centre partnership in a while. Now we have O'Driscoll back and the talented Earls. Different story.

[dallym]

it doesn't matter if the infamous draw would have been a victory to the Irish if they were using today's scoring methods. You play to the scoring methods in operation, not to what they use 30 years in the future

[Golden]

The strange tale of Finnegan's haka
By Dean Parker 5:30 AM Saturday Jun 9, 2012

EmailPrintAs Ireland prepare to face the All Blacks at Eden Park today, Dean Parker recalls how the New Zealand battle cry influenced one of their greatest writers


The Paris match between the All Blacks and a French Selection at Colombes Stadium in 1925 had an inquisitive spectator in the form of James Joyce (inset). Picture / APSamuel Beckett had huge admiration for his fellow Irish writer James Joyce which extended even into the exacting realm of fantasy football. So when it came to drawing up an All-Ireland XV of Irish writers, Beckett, a former First XV halfback, slipped his idol in at first five-eighths.

"Very crafty, very nippy," Beckett noted. "He might surprise you when the light is fading."

Joyce would be an unlikely choice at first five. He was half blind and prone to giving long thought to any serious matter such as what to do with the ball in hand.

But he seemed to appreciate a decent game.

Sounds like Tomas O'Leary

[Rory_Gallagher]

Wow. Guys. I am very excited about this one. I think we can do it, I really do.

[Gibson]

Lets just go for it and see where it takes us. Im happier that Kidney is at last changing things proactively, rather than relying on injuires to evolve the 22.
Now, all he has to do, is to get us to attack them (like Leinster) and let them try deal with us. Not the other way round. That's the mistake so many sides make.

TORA! TORA! TORA!

Im worried about Fitzpatrick tbh, but as a Kiwi on here said himself, they dont use the scrum to punish & score penalties like England. They use it to move the ball as quickly as possible.
NZ are hot favs. And so they should be. Magnificent side. They should beat us by 15 plus.

But I just want us to go for it. NO pussey-footin around boys. Nothing to lose and all to gain. Even if we get hammered - and I dont think we will, at least we will have gone for it.

Over to yerself Deccie.

Believe.

[wolfball]

Any chance of a link via PM?! Cheers, ireland abu!

[Gibson]

Any chance of a link via PM?! Cheers, ireland abu!

Wolfball,
check yer PM (Messages) we cant post them on threads.

[pete (buachaill on eirne)]

COME ON IRELAND

BELIEVE

[maestegmafia]

C'mon Ireland..

I have a feeling you can do this... No rational, just a feeling

[Gibson]

Mornin Pete.

Lets hope we get a good start. MUST go at them and take a few risks imo. Otherwise the usual will happen.

Ah here's Deccie-speak.

[Biltong]

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE YYYYYOOOOUUUU
RRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAADYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

[Gibson]

Sexton v Carter. Time to do it Johnny. Time to show the World lad.

[Hookisms and Hyperbole]

Steve Hansen and Declan Kidney interviews were dripping with charisma in their interviews. I haven't seen as much charisma in the same arena since....jeez I don't know, The Rock vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 18.

[Gibson]

[Gibson]

BRING IT OOONNNN!

I love watching NZ play. Just not so much against us like.

[rodders]

Ah hells bells I'm hungover and haven't got a working link yet!!!

[Hookisms and Hyperbole]

LMFAO at Zebo's face walking out of the changing room. Looks like a sore bum from dropping a few bricks

[rodders]

Ok crisis over!

[Gibson]

BELIEVE!

Feic me, I hope we play better than that fella sings!

[Cymroglan]

The Welsh youngsters showed yesterday that it's possible to beat the best.
Good luck today guys.

[maestegmafia]

Awful rendition of the anthem. Played on a Casio synthesizer and sung by a failed club singer...

[Hookisms and Hyperbole]

I sent you a PM there Rodders with a link. I hope for your sake you haven't missed the greatest rendition of Ireland's Call. Its right up there the Rasta in Paris against South Africa. Nul points.

[Gibson]

Mornin lads.

Get dem down ye.

[Thomond]

Rodders, told you I would sort you out! Takes patience, I'm amazingly pumped for this! Mon Ireland!

[rodders]

OK we're dead

[Rory_Gallagher]

Anyone got a link?

[Gibson]

Ah Nige is our man. God Bless im.

[littlejohn]

Can someone pm me a link for the game? Thx!

[Hookisms and Hyperbole]

Sent you a link there Rory if no one else has.

[rodders]

Hook!

[maestegmafia]

Come On Ireland... looking very confident there now...!

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